The present invention relates to a collapsible or retractable lock for doors of in particular thin-walled cabinets, and includes a cradle that can be inserted into a cutout portion of the door, and that is configured on its front side for accommodating a lever handle in a retractable manner, whereby in the pivoted-in position in the cradle, the lever handle can be secured in place via a locking mechanism, and in the plane perpendicular to the door panel, the lever handle can be pivoted out of the cradle via a pivot bearing over an operating stroke or displacement, whereby the operating displacement of the lever handle is converted into a longitudinal displacement of at least one latching bar that is longitudinally displaceably guided on the other side of the cabinet between a locking position and an opening position.
A lock of the aforementioned type is described in DE 297 05 508 U1. With the known lock, the pivoting out of the lever handle out of the cradle is converted directly into a longitudinal displacement of a latching bar in that the lever handle, during its pivoting movement, drives a pinion disposed parallel to its plane of movement, wherein at a front side the teeth of the pinion engage the recesses of the displaceable latching bar. The known lock has the drawback that after passing through the operating stroke, for the opening of the lock the lever handle must remain in the pivoted-out open position with the lock open, which can have a disruptive effect during operation. To this extent there is the further drawback that with the lever handle pivoted in, a subsequent closing of the door is not possible due to the direct coupling of the latching bar, pinion, and lever handle. Finally, the lock is also not suitable for the provision of a second latching bar for a two-point locking, and also not for the provision of an additional tongue, which extends behind a part of the cabinet for a three-point locking, with such two- or three-point locks being know, for example, from EP 0 261 267 B1.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to variably configure a retractable lock of the aforementioned general type in such a way that a one-point, two-point, or three-point lock is selectively possible, with the operating displacement of the lever handle remaining the same.